12/06/2012

"The Sun has been a driver of these systems more than we had any
right to expect," says Daniel Baker, Principal Investigator, Van
Allen Probes Relativistic Electron Proton Telescope (REPT). "We're seeing brand new features we
hadn't expected." In a press conference on Dec. 4th members of the Van
Allen Probes science team discussed current findings made in unlocking the
mysteries of the radiation belts. Energetic events and ejections of plasma from
the Sun caused dramatic changes in the radiation belts that, for the first
time, were observed by twin spacecraft within the belts.

"We expected to see a fairly placid radiation belt system,"
Baker reports. "Instead, we see that
the belts have been extraordinarily active and dynamic during the first few
weeks. We're looking in the right places at the right times." The twin
probes, built and managed for NASA by the Johns Hopkins University Applied
Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., contain identical sets of five
instrument suites. These suites have confirmed previous hypotheses about the
belts' behavior, while also revealing that the belts are a far more dynamic and
changing environment than previously thought.

Our planet's
magnetosphere captures charged particles from the billions of tons of
plasma ejected by the Sun and from other sources; fields and waves of
electricity and magnetism control and guide the charged particles within the
belts, with the particles "surfing" on the waves, losing or gaining large
amounts of energy along the way as they enter and leave the region.

12/02/2012

A new
study just released indicates the June 2012 discovery by
a team of Japanese scientists showing a spike in carbon-14 found in tree rings
dating between 774-775 AD - was most likely caused by a CME (coronal mass
ejection). Until now, the 1859 "Carrington Event" has been
documented as the largest solar event to hit Earth ever recorded.

A research team lead
by Adrian Melott, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of
Kansas and Brian Thomas, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Washburn
University, have examined the evidence and zeroed in on the likely source of
the 774-775 AD carbon-14 event.

It was noted that
recent observations of stars similar to the Sun made by the Kepler
satellite suggest that they are flaring at levels similar to that which they
suggest - and higher - at average intervals of a few hundred to thousand years.

This new discovery
has been titled the "Charlemagne Event" - named after Charlemagne's
victory over the Lombards during the same period. "What our team concluded was the Charlemagne Event would be 10 or
20 times greater than the Carrington Event
of 1859".

11/22/2012

Excitement is building over soon-to-be-released results from NASA's Curiosity rover, which is three months into a two-year mission to determine if Mars has ever been capable of supporting microbial life.

In an interview on (NPR) National Public Radio, aired Tuesday, lead mission investigator John Grotzinger hinted at something major but said there would be no announcement for several weeks.

"We're getting data from Curiosity," he said. "This data is going to be one for the history books. It's looking really good."

Scientists do not expect Curiosity to find aliens or living creatures but they hope to use it to analyze soil and rocks for signs the building blocks of life are present and may have supported life in the past.

Solar activity has
been active for the past 48 hours. Three M-class flares have fired off from
sunspot region 1618. The largest solar event of this period was an M3.6 flare
event on Nov. 21st 15:10:00 UT. There was an M1.7 at 12:36:00 UT and M1.4 at 19:21:00
UT.

Region 1618
developed into a beta-gamma-delta magnetic configuration which gives it a
potential for X-class flares. A filament eruption occurred between Nov. 20th (2305
UT) to Nov. 21st (0200) UT near sunspot region 1613.

A geomagnetic
storm is expected on Nov. 22nd and 23rd and all three CMEs hit Earth's
magnetic field. There is a greater than 70% chance of continued M-class flares
from region 1618 with a 25% chance of X-class flares.

Watch for extreme
weather events over the holidays - which include earthquakes, volcanoes,
tornadoes, and tropical storms. Also note - there has been a 6.0 magnitude or
larger earthquake every day since the Nov. 13th total solar eclipse.

11/16/2012

This new finding furthers ECMs new equation identifying a connection between our galaxy Milky Way, channeling charged particles in a narrow bands which would have a significant effect on our Sun, all planets in our solar system, and all that lives on them.

Once again, a feeling of accomplishment and free-floating-anxiety simultaneously engulf all my senses. Not necessarily a pleasant feeling - sometimes reflecting intense mood-swings. Why? Probably because of venturing into the unknown - or is it 'the known' - or maybe it's both at the same time.

Personal note: Remember, prophecy or prediction does not produce a regimented fate. In fact, the purpose of prophecy is to alter the outcome by empowering us with knowledge. But there is a catch. We have to make will thought-out choices and changes using our gift of discernment and for some of us, our 'learned' skill of critical thinking.

Advancing black holes produce intense radiation and powerful relativistic jets, which are affected by the black-hole's spin magnitude and direction. While thin disks might align with the black-hole spin axis via the Bardeen-Petterson effect, this does not apply to jet systems with thick disks.

A newly published study describes how astrophysicists used simulations, which follow both the rules of general relativity and the laws of magnetism, to demonstrate that gravity isn't the sole arbiter of a spinning black hole's behavior.

Dr. Jonathan McKinney, professor of physics at the University of Maryland describes his team's findings: "We used fully three-dimensional general relativistic magneto-hydrodynamic simulations to study accreting black-holes with various black-hole spin vectors and disk thicknesses with magnetic flux reaching saturation. Our simulations reveal a "magneto-spin alignment" mechanism that causes magnetized disks and jets to align with the black-hole spin near black-holes and further away to reorient with the outer disk."

This mechanism has implications for the evolving of black-holes such as the one in our galaxy Milky Way and our neighbors Andromeda, SgrA* and M87.

NASA has found a
secret underground subway system indicating Martians have been trying to
hide their anthropogenic induced pollution causing an unexpected warming of
Mars. Silly, isn't it....

Observations of wind
patterns and natural solar radiation patterns on Mars by NASA's Curiosity
rover are helping scientists better understand the environment on the Red
Planet's surface. The daily cycle of higher pressure in the morning and lower
pressure in the evening results from daytime heating of the atmosphere by the Sun.

Effects of that
atmospheric tide show up in data from Curiosity's Radiation Assessment
Detector (RAD). This instrument monitors high-energy solar radiation considered
to be a health risk to astronauts and a factor in whether microbes could
survive on Mars' surface. "We see a
definite pattern related to the daily thermal tides of the atmosphere,"
said RAD Principal Investigator Don Hassler of the Southwest Research Institute
Boulder, Colo., branch.

Hassler goes on to
say:"The atmosphere provides a
level of shielding, and so charged-particles
are less when the atmosphere is thicker. Overall, Mars' atmosphere reduces the
radiation dose compared to what we saw during the flight to Mars."